Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro (17 August 1843 – 16 December 1913) was an Italian Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, and the last man to have his candidacy for papal election vetoed by a Catholic monarch.

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Born in Polizzi Generosa, Sicily, Rampolla was the son of Ignazio Rampolla, Count of Tindaro, and of his wife, Orsola Errante. He is often referred to with the title of marquess, but this appears to be inaccurate.

In 1866 Rampolla was ordained a priest. He obtained a doctorate in utroque iure (Canon Law and Civil Law)in 1870. In 1874 he was named a Canon of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. In 1875, he was sent to Spain as Auditor of the papal Nunciature. In 1877 he returned to Rome and was named Secretary for Oriental Affairs of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. In the following year he was named a Protonotary apostolicde numero participantium, the highest rank of Monsignors. In 1880 he was named Secretary of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, the Vatican office which deals with areas of the world in which there is no regularly constituted hierarchy of bishops. Then Rampolla was also appointed Secretary of the Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, the subsection of the Secretariat of State which deals with the foreign affairs of the Holy See.

As Secretary of State, Cardinal Rampolla supported the Austrian Christian Social Party, led by Karl Lueger, sometime mayor of Vienna (1897-1910). Lueger only entered office, over the disapproval of Emperor Franz Joseph, through the personal intervention of Leo XIII. Lueger's Christian Social Party was the first Catholic social movement that was both anti-liberal and anti-Semitic.[2] Rampolla began to swing papal policy away from support of Austria, come what may, toward support of France, Austria's enemy. His policy inside Italy, in the most general terms, was to oppose every Italian government that came to office, on the grounds that there was nothing to lose, and perhaps something to gain, especially on the international scene.[3]

In 1908 he became Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of the Fabric of Saint Peter's.[4]

The Secretary of the Conclave, Archbishop Rafael Merry del Val, reported later that Cardinal Puzyna de Kosielsko came to see him, demanding to announce his veto against Cardinal Rampolla in the name of EmperorFranz Joseph I of Austria. Merry Del Val protested and refused even to accept the document. Rampolla, according to Merry del Val, actually gained votes after the veto. However, Merry del Val later opined to Ludwig von Pastor that Rampolla was unlikely to win as a majority of the cardinals wanted a more conservative direction from the relatively liberal pontificate of Pope Leo XIII, as did he himself.[a]

The specific reasons for Austria's opposition have never been clarified. Possibly, the veto was a result of the pro-French positions adopted by Rampolla, which were reflected in the policies of Leo XIII. Part of the Holy See's solution involving the French Republic was the attempt to reconcile French Catholics with their nation's republican government via Laïcité. This was anathema to the powerful Ultramontanes. Informed sources[weasel words] at the time also claimed that Austria acted on behalf of Italy's government through the intervention of State Minister Zanardelli.[7] Count Carl Lonyay, in his book Rudolf : the tragedy of Mayerling,[8] gives an explanation based on the murder/suicide of Franz Joseph's son, Crown Prince Rudolf in 1889. Rampolla was the Papal Secretary of State at the time of the Mayerling events, and he personally refused the dispensation which would allow Rudolf's burial in sacred ground, for which he incurred the undying enmity of the Emperor, who exacted his revenge fifteen years later by vetoing the Cardinal's election as Pope. The official reason for Rudolf's death, however, was "mental imbalance", which allowed for a Catholic burial.

While some prelates formally protested this intrusion after voting had been in progress, the Ultra Cardinals readily recognized the existing legal right of the emperor. Support for Rampolla dissipated, leading to the election of Giuseppe Sarto as Pope Pius X. Abolition of the veto right was one of the new Pope's first official acts.

Pius X chose the able secretary of the conclave that had elected him, Rafael Merry del Val, to succeed Rampolla as Secretary of State. However, Rampolla remained Arch-Priest of Saint Peter's,[7] a position to which he had been appointed by Leo XIII. He lived in a modest house behind Saint Peter's Basilica. Between 1908 and his death in 1913, Rampolla served as Secretary (then the head) of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office. In 1912, Pope Pius X appointed Rampolla, in addition to his role as head of the Holy Office, as Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church, a position he held until his death.[9]

Symbolising successful papal diplomacy and worldwide contacts, he continued to be viewed as a most likely successor to Pope Pius X in case of the pontiff's death. Rampolla died suddenly in Rome on 16 December 1913 at age seventy, some months before the pope died in August 1914.[10] He was buried in the Campo Verano Cemetery, near the Basilica of S. Lorenzo fuori le mura.[11] His friend and closest collaborator, Giacomo della Chiesa, the future Pope Benedict XV, presided over his funeral ceremonies. On 19 June 1929, twelve days after the Italian Parliament ratified the Lateran Treaty, the body of Cardinal Rampolla was transferred to Santa Cecilia.

^Valérie Pirie claims that Rampolla would never have won in the conclave, and that all that the veto accomplished was to make him appear a sympathetic figure as a victim of Austrian hostility, "inasmuch as it gave his defeat the appearance of having been brought about by a treacherous knock-out blow, when in reality his failure was inevitable; the world at large being still convinced that had it not been for the Austrian veto Rampolla would certainly have been elected Pope."[6]